


By the Witness of the Moon

by TheDoctorIsIcecube



Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Anxiety, Blood moon, Established Relationship, Impa is best parent, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, M/M, Marriage, Sheikah Culture, Traditional Ceremony, sex references
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-22
Updated: 2017-04-22
Packaged: 2018-10-22 13:07:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,854
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10697637
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheDoctorIsIcecube/pseuds/TheDoctorIsIcecube
Summary: Link and Sheik are finally getting married. Sheik can't wait, but the one thing he desperately wants is for Link to be recognised as his husband within his own culture, not just by Hylian law.





	By the Witness of the Moon

"Link... Hey, Link. Don't go to sleep just yet." Sheik shifted in bed, pressing a kiss to Link's shoulder. That got his attention. "I wanted to ask. Once we're legally married, can we have a Sheikah ceremony as well?"

"Sure," he mumbled. He had no idea what a Sheikah ceremony was like, Sheik hadn't even mentioned one before, but he'd do anything for him. "I mean, we'll probably be living here still and I know I'll never be properly Sheikah in their eyes, but I'd love to."

"If you go through with the ceremony, though, you'll be part of the tribe. Officially my husband in their eyes. And that would mean the world to me." Sheik smiled. "We should talk about it more in the morning, though. There's some things you need to know."

“I’m intrigued,” Link said with a smile, shifting so he could be even closer to Sheik. It was warmer here than it had been in Tabantha, but that didn’t mean he avoided the warmth of his very warm (and very muscled) fiance. “Goodnight, perfect. I love you.”

"I love you too. Rest well." Another kiss to Link's forehead, and he was happily drifting off to sleep, looking forward to learning more about this Sheikah ceremony in the morning.

-

"We do what?" Link was not ashamed to admit that his voice had maybe gone up an octave in the last sentence. 

Sheik was just standing there, smiling at him, saying it like it was nothing at all. "We paint Sheikah symbols on each other's faces with animal blood," he said again.

"Why?" His voice was definitely still up an octave. "What animal? Do we have to kill an animal? I'm not sure I could just kill an animal, Sheik."

"No, no don't worry about it," Sheik said. "We don't have to do anything. Impa's my guardian, she'll prepare it all for us with the elder. All we have to do is get drunk and remember not to kiss each other too much when we have blood on our faces."

"I'm not going to be able to avoid kissing you!" He protested. It was their wedding night. Impa had already expressed her intention to sleep a mile away from the house on that evening. "It's our wedding night."

"I might be teasing you just a little. We have to leave it on our foreheads overnight, but we're allowed to wipe everything else off. So don't worry. I won't let you down on our wedding night."

"Good," he said, not able to resist kissing Sheik again. Why was he so perfect? "Did you, um, I know Impa was going to check last night about school stuff. Did she leave anything on the desk?"

"Yeah, I think she left you some stuff to look over. But your education is a little less important than our upcoming wedding, I believe." Sheik joked, taking his hand and pulling him towards the door. "We should go and find Impa, tell her that you agreed to the ceremony."

"Fine," Link said, sticking his tongue out. The wedding was a lot more important (for now) and a lot more imminent, so really he agreed. It was just another few weeks now and he had never been more excited in his life.

"You act like such a child sometimes. Anyone would think you were eight, not eighteen." Sheik was just teasing, Link knew that very well. He walked as close as he could to his fiancé on the way to Impa's usual morning retreat, happy to go and tell her the good news.

-

The day of the wedding was approaching, and every day there seemed to be new things to address. A whole bunch of Sheik's extended family had objected to him being accepted as Sheik's husband and part of the tribe, and Link had spent hours talking it through with the elder. Thankfully, almost all of the extended family had since changed their mind, after he had offered extensive proof that he wasn't evil and wasn't trying to commit some heinous crime against the village. Those had been a fun few afternoons, answering question after question from angry Sheikah. 

But that had finally calmed down, and they now had simpler and more fun things to sort out, like whether they should send an invite to Link's uncle (the answer was yes and they were yet to receive a reply or even a phone call) and if it was acceptable to have a dog at the legal ceremony. The answer to the dog question also turned out to be yes, because the dog was cute and not prone to making noise at inopportune moments. With those smaller dilemmas out of the way, everything else was coming along remarkably smoothly.

Link didn't really want to admit it to Sheik, but he was starting to get quite nervous, especially about the Sheikah ceremony. What if he got stressed and froze up? He would embarrass himself in front of everyone and completely ruin the day for Sheik. It wasn't like he could just tell all that anxiety to go away and then it would just because the day was important.

But as ever, Sheik noticed when he got nervous and asked him about it one evening, when they were taking a break from planning. They were both relaxed in front of the television, and for once Link felt like he could talk about his fears. "You help so much but I just can't stop it from happening," he said. Even thinking about it was starting to make him feel sick and shaky and words started catching in his throat. "And I know it means so much for you and that's why I want it to go well."

"Link...I promise you, it will go well." Sheik wrapped his arms tighter around him, drawing Link in close against his chest. "You don't have to say much. Just repeat the words you're told to say and then kiss me. I certainly hope you'll be able to kiss me." Link just nodded, but he didn't say anything. He didn't know if he'd be able to kiss Sheik. He didn't know if he'd be able to speak. "And if you can't do it, well, we just put it back to the next lunar cycle and try again. There's no rush to do it, I promise."

"Mhm." Link shifted in Sheik's arms, looking up at him. The smile, the concern in his eyes... He felt a little of his worry melt away just looking at it. Sheik always had that effect on him. "I'll do my best for you. Promise."

"That's all you ever have to do," Sheik said. "Now come on. At least pay a tiny bit of attention to the TV, I know you don't understand it without subtitles." Link just made a faint noise of protest and rested his head on Sheik's chest. He loved him so much. "Or you could just do that. That's fine, too..." Link let out a happy hum in response, the noise shifting almost to a purr as Sheik started stroking his hair, nails gently scratching at his scalp in just the right way. How had he ever found someone so perfect?

-

The day of the marriage dawned with Sheik shaking Link awake at about seven in the morning. Not appreciated, but also very much appreciated because they had quite the distance to travel to reach the registry office, and then they had to travel all the way back again by the evening for the Sheikah ceremony, which Link was still nervous about, albeit a little less terrified than before. Sheik had rehearsed with him multiple times, and Link found it hard to believe that he would forget his lines no matter how much stress he was under.

They went to the nearest registry office, all the way back past the Duelling Peaks in a skyscraper that dwarfed the ancient tower in a way that Sheik said was rather disrespectful to his ancestors, and they got married. It didn’t have all the excitement Link was expecting it to have, but he supposed it was just the standard ceremony plus a dog for him in case he got nervous. They got married, and then the office just moved on to the next people, who they'd like a bit more because it didn't involve accommodating for a therapy dog. Whatever it was, it symbolised the next step. He was married now. He was married.

But really, he didn’t feel much different. The feeling different would no doubt come that evening. Or rather tonight, seeing as the ceremony was supposed to be conducted right under the moon. The blood moon, specifically. Sheik had admitted that he’d planned the wedding specially so it could be on the night of the blood moon before he even asked Link about the Sheikah ceremony, because he’d hoped all along that the answer would be yes.

When Link had asked Sheik why the ceremony was conducted under the blood moon, he said that it was because the moon represented another step forwards. It was the beginning of something, but it was also important because it was the night that the spirits could see. Sheik said he liked to think that his parents would be proud to watch him get married. Link would like to think the same, but he wasn’t sure. He hadn’t really known his parents all that well. He sincerely hoped that they were better than his uncle, though. Although that wasn’t very hard- a literal cow would be better than his uncle.

Sheik held his hand tightly all the way back to Kakariko Village. Link could see him getting even more excited as time went by, and it was sort of infectious. When Sheik was smiling, he couldn’t help but smile too. His husband- it was so nice to think of him as his husband- meant the world to him and his happiness was definitely spreading to him.

“We need to start getting ready as soon as we get back,” Sheik said, squeezing Link’s hand. “Our outfits ought to be waiting for us, Paya said that she would collect them because she knew we'd still be in bed until just before we had to leave. And the village elders are in charge of preparing the ceremony, so we don’t have to worry about that.”

Link nodded. The words were stuck somewhere in his head again, but he was sure they would come back soon. He just needed to relax, and hold Sheik’s hand, and remember that the ceremony was meant to be fun but also traditional. Sheik said it was pretty normal that everyone got a little bit drunk before the ceremony, too.

“We have to stay away from the rest of the village whilst they’re setting up the ceremony,” Sheik explained. “It’s bad luck to see everything being prepared. It’s a good thing that it’s not also bad luck to smell things being prepared, or else we’d have to move ten miles away whilst they’re doing the cooking. Honestly, all of the food is amazing.”

Link grinned. Food was something he could get behind in any celebration, honestly. “Do we just have to stay in the house blindfolded?” He asked, and Sheik just smiled.

“If you wanted to do something like that in bed last night you should have just asked, Link,” he said. Link tried not to scoff too loudly or Impa might get annoyed. She didn’t like it all that much when they talked about sex when she was there. She didn’t much like hearing them either, but it was another eight months until Sheik inherited his parents’ house so she would just have to put up with hearing their antics from downstairs until then. Link couldn’t help being loud.

“Come on boys, I know you’ve been married longer than I ever have been but surely you can keep your hands off each other.” Impa sounded fond for once, which was a good sign. Link liked it when she wasn’t faintly pissed off about her nephew being good at giving blowjobs.

“No one’s making you sit with us, Aunt Impa.” Sheik grinned. “If it was your wedding day, you would be just the same.” 

“It’s not my wedding day, though. And if it was, you two certainly wouldn’t be around to poke fun at me,” Impa grumbled. Despite her words, she was still quite clearly smiling. “And I do have to sit with you, seeing as I’m driving the car. I trust you to drive it, but not when you just married Link.”

Link nodded. Sheik had a tendency to look back at him in one of the mirrors and get distracted. It had happened more than once, and last time he almost drove off the road. “It’s not my fault that he’s so attractive,” Sheik said with a huff. “If I’d known that he was going to be so pretty when I first got talking to him, I’d have…well, honestly I would probably just have asked him out even sooner.”

“I don’t need to hear your autobiography, I’ve been there for more of it than you remember,” Impa said, shooting a smile at Link. “You haven’t stopped talking about him to me since you started talking to him.” Link blushed, a little embarrassed to hear that he had been talked about so much. He supposed that it was only fair, though- he'd talked about Sheik to his uncle, too, although that had stopped once they'd started dating. "I think I saw at least sixty pictures of you before I met you, Link," Impa said, and Link could see exactly what she was doing. She was playing embarrassing parent for Sheik, and it was working because Sheik was blushing.

"I hope they were nice pictures." He'd sent plenty of photos to Sheik over the years. Some nice, many rather silly, and some definitely not appropriate for sharing with parents and guardians.

"He saved all the nice pictures to his phone," she said. Link felt like she must have seen more than the nice pictures. "Did everyone wear the feathered clothes in Tabantha, or is that just something you did to impress Sheik?"

"Most people wear the feathered clothes. The Rito make them, and it's cold up there, so you'd be silly not to." Of course, it hadn't been quite so freezing in the small village where Link had lived. But it was plenty cold enough to justify feathers.

"Do they have traditional weddings there?" She asked. "I feel like I don't know anything about where you come from, yet we're asking you to paint Sheik's face with blood."

"There's a Hylian tradition," he started, remembering Sheik's disbelief when he told him about this, "that when a man gets married to a woman, the man and his friends all go out the night before and get incredibly drunk. In my area, the general goal was to get someone to fall in the lake."

"That sounds dangerous." It was dangerous, because the lake made people get so cold they quickly went into shock and then drowned. "Do the women do anything similar?"

Link frowned, thinking about it. "I believe they go out with their friends, too, and one of my friends said there's often balloons shaped like, um...genitals."

"Hylian women sound lonely," she said lightly. He knew she was joking, but the funny part was how offensive the girls in his village would have found the comment. 

"Well they don't have Link to keep them company anymore," Sheik said, tipping his head to lean on Link's shoulder.

"Judging by the fact that you two just got married, I would hazard a guess that Link was never very good at keeping the women of Hyrule company," Impa said dryly. "Now, time to stop this chatter. We're home."

"Thank you for driving us," Sheik said. "Really, thank you." 

"No need to," she said with a smile. "Always happy to spite some Hylians with a young, happy, cross cultural gay couple."

-

Link was getting nervous again. Sheikah clothing was nice to wear, but the sight of it on himself was just reminding him again of what he would have to do in just a few short minutes. Goddesses, the whole village would be watching this ceremony. The only thing keeping him from losing it was Sheik's hands in his hair. They'd decided almost at the last minute that Link should have his hair braided in a Sheikah style, just like how Impa had done Sheik's half an hour ago. It was a nice feeling, and he knew that Sheik would be so happy when it was done. Link couldn't wait to see the wedding photos, honestly.

He closed his eyes, just settling back against Sheik and trying to pretend like this was a normal evening. Just a normal evening, where he happened to be wearing formal Sheikah clothes and be getting his hair braided. "I'm done," Sheik said eventually, putting the final pin into Link's hair. "You look wonderful, Link. I know you're nervous but just know that right now you're making me the happiest man alive."

"No, I'm not." Link turned around and smiled, pressing a kiss against Sheik's lips. "I can't be, you see? Because you're making me the happiest man alive."

"Can I be the happiest Sheikah man alive, then?" He asked, stroking his hand down the left side of Link's face. He was so gentle and perfect.

"Definitely," he said. This was the moment he'd been anticipating before the legal ceremony. The utter rush of love and happiness and pure sap as they spent their last few moments together before they got married.

"Good." Another kiss, and then Sheik got to his feet. "Come on. It's about time we got out there. You know what to say?" Link nodded. He knew exactly what to say, and when to say it. And he knew what to do, and the shapes he had to trace onto Sheik's face. They'd practised it with water several times and he knew the movements off by heart. 

They stepped out of the house and into the streets and Link almost stopped breathing for a moment. In every doorway, there were lanterns, and they stretched all the way to the square. The lanterns shone red and blue in the darkness, and Link was so preoccupied with staring that he almost forgot to walk until Sheik took his arm and tugged on it. "Come on. Just keep walking, there's plenty more to see that's better than lanterns."

As they got closer to the central square, he could see just about everyone from the village. All of them were dressed in traditional clothes and they were all watching him and Sheik as they walked hand in hand to the Goddess statue. The torches around the statue had been lit, and paper lanterns had been left to sit on the lake around it, filling the area with a soft glow. Link had never seen anything prettier in his life. There were tables set in the clearing at the bottom of the hill just by the statue, and all of them were completely full of food. Link suddenly remembered that he'd once dreamt this moment when he was much younger. He'd forgotten about it. He'd never imagined that it would come true, but ever since he'd met Sheik his dreams started coming true.

"I love you," he murmured, as quietly as he could. Sheik just smiled, squeezing his hand tighter as they completed their walk and stood up in front of the statue, facing the village. The elder walked towards them with a silver bowl, and Link bowed his head. The ceremony was fast, he knew, and he wanted to savour every moment. He wasn't afraid anymore. Even from this position, he could still glance up and catch Sheik's eye. It was nice, sharing a smile as the village elder spoke, then looking up again to speak his part.

"I swear to keep my husband for the rest of his days," he said, and his voice was clear. His words hadn't failed him. "I swear to hold him close no matter the hardships we face. I swear to go with him into an uncertain future. I swear to never leave him, and I swear this by the witness of the Goddess on this night of the spirits so that my promise holds ever true."

He took Sheik's hands, and Sheik repeated the promise back to him. Every word had Link's heart doing funny things in his chest, things that definitely hadn't happened when they'd just gone to sign a book earlier that afternoon.

When they were done, the elder held the bowl out towards them. Link dipped two fingers of his left hand in the blood and lifted them to Sheik's cheek, watching as Sheik did the same with his right hand. He drew the symbol of a teardrop on his cheek before moving to his forehead, drawing the eye of truth. All the time, he kept holding Sheik's hand. He was shaking a little, but he would manage. For once, everything was wonderful. The symbols on Sheik's face when he was done weren't quite perfect, but Link knew for a fact that Sheik had been shaking as well. He wondered if anyone doing this marriage ceremony had ever managed to do things perfectly.

They stood there watching each other for a moment, and there was complete silence. Then the elder spoke, telling them they should kiss under the moon to solidify the marriage. It was the best kiss Link had ever had in his life. He couldn't quite tell how long it went on for- at some point, he knew it must have struck midnight because Sheik shivered like he always did when the blood moon rose, and even Link could sense the raw power in the air. A leftover from some ancient age, but a powerful force still. It was a force Sheik felt far more strongly than he did, but for the first time, Link imagined that maybe he could hear the traces of the voices of spirits he knew the Sheikah heard on the night of the blood moon. 

They pulled apart when the energy subsided, but their hands were still locked together. Everyone cheered, and Link had never felt more like he was part of the community. He grinned up at Sheik, then looked out over the people cheering. Cheering for him, as someone they actually accepted. This couldn't be better. Well...maybe it could. There could be food.

"Before we go and get food," Sheik said, moving his arm so he had it around Link's waist, "I just want to say that I love you so much. You make my life infinitely better with every moment you spend in it."

"And the same to you too. I love you more than I can say." Link leaned into Sheik, glad that he was so warm even in the midnight chill. "Now, let's go and eat. I'm starving."

**Author's Note:**

> This was really fun to write! I love these gays so much...if you liked this, please leave a comment because it really helps me know if this is something people like to read as much as I liked to write it.


End file.
